Bubble alert? Buyers camping out for lots in McKinney, Texas

Available land in Dallas suburb drives buyers to extreme lengths

McKinney, Texas is a lot of things. The Dallas suburb rose to unfortunate prominence earlier this year, when video surfaced (and went viral) of a fight that broke out in a McKinney neighborhood, prompting what some said was a severe overreaction from local police.

The city, which rests about 30 miles North of Dallas, is many more things than what’s seen in that unfortunate video though. There’s a reason that the city was named Money Magazine’s “Best Place to Live” in 2014, just two years after the city ranked second in the same ranking.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason that some buyers are going to extreme lengths to secure their own piece of McKinney.

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According to Dallas’ NBC 5, prospective buyers are camping out overnight for their chance to buy a plot of land in a new development in McKinney.

More than two dozen people slept in tents or their cars Monday night in order to snag first dibs at one of dozens of home sites being offered for sale in McKinney Tuesday.

“Because we’re crazy, that’s why,” said Mike Russek, who is moving his family from St. Louis for his job with Southwest Airlines, when asked about what others might think of his efforts. “No. We’re doing it because we want the premium lots here. And it’s first come, first serve.”

The homes will be built as part of phase two of the Prestwyck development in northwest McKinney, just south of Highway 380 and east of Coit Road.

According to the NBC 5 article, there were 83 home sites available for purchase Tuesday morning, and they are all expected to be sold within 24 hours.

A local Redfin agent told NBC 5 that behavior like this isn’t unusual in the incredibly hot Dallas-area real estate market.

“I recently wrote an offer on a house that had been on the market for less than 12 hours. There were 22 offers on the home,” Connie Durnal told NBC 5. “They fly off the shelves."

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Ben Lane is the Editor for HousingWire. In this role, he helps set a leading pace for news coverage spanning the issues driving the U.S. housing economy and helps guide HousingWire's overall direction. Previously, he worked for TownSquareBuzz, a hyper-local news service. He is a graduate of University of North Texas.

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